sabreenareads 's review for:

The Blood Spell by C.J. Redwine

3.0

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Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Disclaimer: The amazing humans at HarperCollins Canada were kind enough to send me an arc of The Blood Spell in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions below are my own.

“It was useless wasting your time wishing for what you didn’t have instead of using what you did.”

Technically, this book is the fourth in a series, but you can read each book as a standalone – though, it appears there are Easter eggs in each tying them all together.

The Blood Spell is a loose retelling of Cinderella. Now, story-wise, I was so here for this. Our “Cinderella” is Blue, a dark-skinned girl with curly hair, a bit of magic, and a drive to do what is right. Blue fights for those who can’t always fight for themselves, and I love this about her. We follow Blue through a tragic event, an almost enemies-to-lovers love story, an abusive “guardian”, and a predictable but interesting reveal about her and her past.

“Hiding from our ghosts only gives them the power to keep haunting us.”

For the most part, the story kept me engaged. I liked that it was a loose retelling, and that Redwine added in many interesting details to make it unique. The overall story is somewhat predictable in that you know what is going to happen, but the details that get you there and what happens after were different enough that I still really enjoyed it.

There were also several nods to the original Cinderella story which my childhood heart loved so much!



My favourite character, by far, is Nessa. Nessa can’t speak and instead signs to communicate. Her family and Blue, as her best friend, have all learned how to sign as well to be able to interact with her. I love that this representation is in there, and that it isn’t just thrown in to make the book seem “diverse”. Nessa is not the main character, but she is very important to the story.

“Maybe Blue was right. Maybe the ordinary citizens of Balavata needed a hero. But Kellan wasn’t a hero, and he knew it. He was a pawn in a political game that was centuries older than he was. He was a piece of meat to be fought over by the head families who hungered for the power of the throne.”

The love story was okay for me. It wasn’t quite enemies-to-lovers… more like bickering children-to-teenagers in love. That being said, I did enjoy the growth of Kellan and Blue’s relationship, and the way they connected was believable. I think the problem for me was more that I just didn’t really connect with any of the characters beyond thinking, “yeah, they’re alright.”

For some reason, I just didn’t care about what happened to the characters in this book, other than Nessa. I did like Blue and what she fought for, but I didn’t find myself caring when she was in trouble. That’s just me, of course, and many others have adored her.

In the end, I still enjoyed the story and appreciated the many unique details that the author included. I don’t know that I loved it enough to pick up the rest of the series right away, but I do love a good fairy tale so I might eventually!

Thanks again to HarperCollins Canada for sending me this to read and review!

The Blood Spell was released in February 2019, so you can grab your copy now!